Top Africa football boss facing Swiss probe over payments

A top figure in African football’s governing body is under investigation in Switzerland on suspicion of criminal mismanagement of funds, but insisted Thursday the bank transfers in question were “legitimate”.

Veron Mosengo-Omba, general secretary of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) headquartered in Cairo, is being investigated in the western canton of Fribourg.

In a statement on X, he insisted the financial transfers under scrutiny were “legitimate”, transparent and were “remuneration and bonus” received from CAF.

The Fribourg public prosecutor’s office wanted the national Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland to handle the case.

But a Swiss court rejected that bid in a September 13 ruling, which only named the person involved as the general secretary of an organization based in Egypt.

Swiss investigative news site Gotham City, which focuses on financial crime in Switzerland, on Wednesday named the person as Mosengo-Omba.

According to the court decision, Mosengo-Omba posted a link to the Money Laundering Reporting Office Switzerland (MROS) and contacted the Fribourg prosecutors in February.

MROS said its analysis of transactions showed the general secretary “had, on several occasions, obtained bonuses much higher than the maximum set in his employment contract and received all of these bonuses and salaries in a variety of Swiss accounts.

“We were unable to identify transfers between his Swiss accounts with establishments in Egypt.”

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MROS cited transfers between personal accounts and cash withdrawals, “hindering any possibility of tracing the use of said funds”.

“These various elements constitute a bundle of